Summer Of '76

A Memory of Ilfracombe.

My friend Sue and I worked as waitresses at the Runnacleve during July and August of that hot summer whilst on holiday from catering college. Not that we saw much of the sun! We served breakfast, lunch and dinner with short breaks in between. We would start work at 7.30am and finally finish around 9pm. We were in the annexe of the restaurant and I waited on the American owner, Mr Roberts and his family who had the corner table. I still have a photo of his young children in fancy dress. All of the kitchen and waiting staff were friendly. I think we were the youngest. There was a dance held in the ballroom (which was also the restaurant); one evening a week or so four of us used to wait till it was over and then lay all the tables for breakfast to earn extra money. One time we must have looked at the wrong plan because we laid all the tables in the wrong order, so a table that should have been laid for 2 was now a table for 4. The waitresses had to lay all their tables again so we weren't too popular. We all lived in the staff quarters in the basement, our rooms were off a long, dark corridor. We used to call it the 'bowels' of the Runnacleve. Cockroaches made regular appearances. We got one day off a week and spent that catching up on sleep and doing our laundry. It was hard work but I still remember our time there with affection.

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